Meridian Animal Shelter likely to close

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MERIDIAN, Idaho - The Meridian Animal Shelter is located right next to a waste water treatment plant. The city has plans to expand the plant. Now the shelter might close, opting to work with the Idaho Humane Society instead.

The shelter is run completely by volunteers. The city says that saves them hundreds of the thousands of dollars each year.

Recently volunteers were told about the likely closure of the shelter.

"When they decided to shut us down, it broke a lot of people's hearts," said former board member and volunteer, Dina Mohr.

But the city says they are trying to balance a budget.

"We know we are going to lose this location and nobody has the millions of dollars necessary to build a new shelter," said Lieutenant John Overton.

But volunteer Susan Holladay says there has got to be a better plan.

"I really feel like they are throwing away a group of people that has allowed this shelter to run on basically nothing," said Holladay.

She says the Idaho Humane Society is just too big and can't give the level care volunteers in Meridian provide.

"We know their names, we know how long they have been there, we know which ones are hard to adopt and which ones aren't. We care for the animals and I don't think that can be done in a facility the size of what Idaho Humane Society is," said Holladay.

Overton disagrees, he says IHS's full time staff and programs will benefit Meridian dogs.

"They have professional veterinarians, adoption clinics, they have a full staff of people and a lot more animal control officers than we have," said Overton.